412 posts categorized "Pop Culture"

06/24/2014

At long last the Obama Administration has been forced to release the (heavily redacted) memo from the Department of Justice that grants them the right to kill any United States citizen they deem an imminent threat. Never mind that the language in the memo is a lot like the closing scene from the first "Indiana Jones" film. You know, where Indy is assured that the Ark is being studied by "top men". In the memo, unnamed "top intelligence officials" decide who is an immediate threat. Oh, and they can do this on American soil btw.

12/27/2013

The week between Christmas and New Years has always been a mystery to me. Should you work? Should you not work? If you do decide to go into the office chances are it's a ghost town. Don't even try calling other offices. So, over the years, me and the family have just taken the whole period off. Except to post Prickly City, of course.

04/03/2013

03/11/2013

Today we will have our fourth live webcast discussing cartoons and cartooning. I will be talking via web cam to Tim Rickard creator of the comic strip, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! which appears here in The Chicago Tribune.

I will also have video from a recent trip I made out to Third Coast Comics in Edgewater. I had a great conversation with the owner, Terry Gant, who is a comics savant. I walked out with a stack of graphic novels that he recommended (yes, I paid for them) and he was spot on with his suggestions.

Third Coast Comics sponsors several different events such as Wine and Comics, Drink, Draw & Knitting Night and Comics Karaoke. He has a great comics blog on the store web page as well, so check it out.

01/17/2013

01/05/2013

When I first started this blog three-and-a-half years ago one of the things I posted about was what I happened to be reading at the time.I invited visitors to the blog to share their thoughts and recommendations. For some reason, (lazy and/or my ADD kicked in), that feature ended. Well, I'm bringing it back. I liked doing it and I especially enjoyed the comments. So feel free to help expand my horizons:

Nature's Metropolis-Chicago and the Great West by William Cronom One question I asked a lot when I arrived at the Chicago Tribune was "Why Chicago?" What I meant was, why this particular spot? Why not Grand Rapids or Milwaukee? Well, Mary Schmich got tired of hearing me ask and handed me this book, Nature's Metropolis by William Cronom. A remarkable natural history of how one of America's great cities got to be, well, great. Thanks Mary. And I won't ask again. Promise.

Heavenly Intrique-Johannes Kepler, Tycho Brahe, and the murder behind one of history's greeatest scientific discoveries. by Joshua Gilder and Anne-Lee Gilder Great concept. An astronomical smack down to the death. Winner take all. While Johannes Kepler did, indeed, take off with most of Tycho Brahe's more important observations following Brahe's death, the book is not a murder mystery. Rather, it delivers the story of the greatness of Tycho Brahe while depicting Johannes Kepler as a whinny little turd-monkey. And, oh yeah, Kepler probably killed Brahe. A good history book deceptively packaged.

Bad High School Poetry by Box Brown Full disclosure here:I am a huge fan of Box Brown. I even have purchased a piece of his original art. Cartoonist, historian, comparative religion writer, chronicler and autobiographer, Brown is making it harder and harder to pigeonhole him and his work. He is, in short, a genius and one worth reading. Bad High School Poetry is a coming of age story told in a way only Box Brown can. Do this for yourself; grab every book of his you can, bookmark his web sites and enjoy as you discover one of the great undiscovered talents creating today.

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow For those of you who may have been reading this blog back when this book thing was a regular feature I was struggling through what felt like the endless swamp that was Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. The author seemed to feel he had to put every single piece of information he discovered about Hamilton into the book. The flood of minutiae had me begging two-thirds of the way through, "Just shoot the guy already!!!!" But as I finally finished the last page I had a far better understanding of the man and his times. Like the Revolutionary War Hamilton worked so valiantly to win, this book was worth the slog.

12/07/2012

About this blog

A lot of dreams don’t come true in this world. Mine did, I am now the editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune has a long and storied history of editorial cartooning. From John T. McCutcheon to Orr to Parrish right on through to Dick Locher and Jeff MacNelly. There is no other place that any cartoonist would rather draw for than right here. This blog writes a new page in that history. Here you will see my editorial cartoons as well as my nationally syndicated comic strip, Prickly City. I invite you to comment. I look forward to our conversation.
 Scott Stantis' bio  Gallery of latest Chicago Tribune political cartoons  Video: An editorial cartoon drawn in two minutes